Alienware releases 3 new Area-51 laptops

Alienware has long been known as a company that targets enthusiasts, creating systems with the highest level components for people who want the best of the best but don't want to build it themselves. It comes as no surprise that their latest offerings come in the form of three high-power notebooks, all based on the Intel Core Duo processor.

Alienware's Area-51 series will see the m5750, m5550 and the m3450 added to its lineup, each one featuring a 17”, 15.4” and 14” widescreen display, respectively. The m3450 will be the only one that doesn't feature a discrete graphics card, instead relying on Intel's GMA 950, and likely will be destined for workstations. It can be equipped with a Core Solo instead of a Core Duo to reduce cost, and features all the other standard goodies you can expect from a mid-range laptop including wireless a/b/g support, Firewire and USB slots, 7.1 HD audio and more.

The m5550 and m5750 can both be configured with discrete graphics cards, including several different GeForce Go cards and Mobility Radeons. Both of them feature higher resolutions than the m3450 as well, with a top resolution of 1920x1200 on both. One extremely interesting feature on the m5750 is the ability to add a second hard drive to the laptop and configure it in a striped array. This is probably harsh on battery life but fantastic for performance. Given that the biggest performance bottleneck on laptops is often the hard drive, this is a feature that laptops are starting to support more and more that gives them a new advantage. For the hardware you see inside these new laptops, they cost a lot less than you'd expect. The lower end model will be only $1099, whereas the other two will run $1399 and $1499. They are all scheduled for released in July.